bidedit, html and more
questions

Some questions I have:
- Does bidedit exist for smartphones?
- I'd like to know how one could use an input file like bml (or another format) into a web-page.
And then show a bidding box, after a bid is clicked then show the description from the bml-file, and adapt the bidding for the next possible (from the bml file or all possible bids).
I have some old experience in programming, but not in web (html?) programming. I'd like to give this a start whenever I have time.
Out of interest in this progamming and in having an application like that.
Question: What is the best free tool for this? (and any web pages explaining this would also be welcome).

For doing a webpage, the standard solution would be to use the usual interpreted languages that are good at parsing text into html/css: Perl, Python, PHP, etc. Pick one and learn it - none of them are terribly complicated and all use similar string-manipulation functions. If you want to be more bleeding edge, you can use something like Clojure.

I'd recommend Python, simply because the bml processor is already written in Python so you could borrow from the source or use it to give you ideas. PHP probably has the most support among webservers. Perl is kind of out of fashion for reasons I'm not entirely sure of. I love Clojure in theory, but I find it hard to adjust to its paradigm.

As for free tools, other than the web hosting, they're ALL free. Just find a cheap webserver that has support for your chosen language, and you're good to go. The heavy .NET or Komodo pay packages are both cumbersome and unnecessary. Just get an interpreter and some sort or editor that meshes well with whatever language you're using to code it, then upload to your website. Tutorials for doing things like this are all over the internet. If you're not accustomed to web programming, it'll be a little frustrating at first - especially if you're used to C or other stuctured, compiled languages, but once you "get it", you'll find yourself coming up with solutions for problems as soon as they come up.

Even cheaper would be to host it locally, if you're willing to turn your computer into a webserver.

For doing a webpage, the standard solution would be to use the usual interpreted languages that are good at parsing text into html/css: Perl, Python, PHP, etc. Pick one and learn it - none of them are terribly complicated and all use similar string-manipulation functions. If you want to be more bleeding edge, you can use something like Clojure.

I'd recommend Python, simply because the bml processor is already written in Python so you could borrow from the source or use it to give you ideas. PHP probably has the most support among webservers. Perl is kind of out of fashion for reasons I'm not entirely sure of. I love Clojure in theory, but I find it hard to adjust to its paradigm.

Is this, e.g Python, changing the bml (or bss) file in a html-file by adding the tags and a lot of other things to get the correct links etc?
Would it also be possible to create a web site that reads the bml file and get the correct bid description? e.g. with a program extension in html (java?) or with simple html code? (this sounds easier to me, but what do I know )

ColdCrayon, on 2012-July-17, 13:55, said:

As for free tools, other than the web hosting, they're ALL free. Just find a cheap webserver that has support for your chosen language, and you're good to go. The heavy .NET or Komodo pay packages are both cumbersome and unnecessary. Just get an interpreter and some sort or editor that meshes well with whatever language you're using to code it, then upload to your website. Tutorials for doing things like this are all over the internet. If you're not accustomed to web programming, it'll be a little frustrating at first - especially if you're used to C or other stuctured, compiled languages, but once you "get it", you'll find yourself coming up with solutions for problems as soon as they come up.

Even cheaper would be to host it locally, if you're willing to turn your computer into a webserver.

Initially, I would simple create a local html app to use on my PC or smartphone. So, I don't need hosting or a webserver then?

I've had some thoughts about making a program which converts BML to HTML, probably in the way you're mentioning. Until then (not sure if I'll create such a program) there's a page called http://bridge.downagain.be/FD/ where you can upload BSS-files (if you register) and then watch them as HTML.

Is this, e.g Python, changing the bml (or bss) file in a html-file by adding the tags and a lot of other things to get the correct links etc?
Would it also be possible to create a web site that reads the bml file and get the correct bid description? e.g. with a program extension in html (java?) or with simple html code? (this sounds easier to me, but what do I know )
Initially, I would simple create a local html app to use on my PC or smartphone. So, I don't need hosting or a webserver then?

Umm, basically the answer is yes to both - the language outputs the html and javascript tags. And if you host it locally, you don't need a webserver. It'll require a bit of configuration on your local machine though.